Puck Daddy

Here’s the thing about attempting to build a video-game-esque super-team in the NHL: One never knows how the Hockey Gods will react.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, for example, added Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray, making them Eastern Conference favorites. Well, before Iginla’s first game for the Pens against the New York Islanders on Saturday, it was announced top defenseman Paul Martin would be out six weeks with a broken bone in his upper body. Then Sidney Crosby took a puck to the face less than 1 minute and 30 seconds into the game:

Oh, Ray Shero, hath thou encouraged the wrath of the Hockey Gods by coveting thy neighbor’s star unrestricted free agents?! (Or judging from the end of that clip, maybe screwy stuff just happens for Sid against the Islanders.)

That was a Brooks Orpik shot that struck Crosby and dropped him to the ice, blood dripping onto the ice. He didn’t return for the first period or to start the second, after just 50 seconds of ice time. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Crosby went to the hospital for "dental work" and would not return to the game.

Given Sid’s medical history, hopefully he’s OK.

(UPDATE: And now the Penguins lose Chris Kunitz to a game misconduct for hitting Josh Bailey from behind. Because of course we wrote this post hours before the game.)